Projecting: Fields | Seeds
I'm not sure why Kentucky wouldn't want to play two games in the SEC tournament on Saturday.
Isn't that pretty much the equivalent of one Billy Gillispie practice?
Anyway, here's Saturday morning's edition of Gettin' In.
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| Blake Hoffarber turns, fires and sinks Indiana. (US Presswire) |
Team whose dream remained alive Friday: Saint Joseph's is likely in the field no matter what happens next, thanks to a 61-53 victory over Xavier in the Atlantic 10 semifinals. Of course, Phil Martelli still seems concerned because he's a coach and coaches are always concerned. But the reality of the situation is that the lack of solid bubble teams making a similar charge is going to aid the Hawks' case, and owning wins over two other bubble teams -- Villanova and UMass (twice) -- should help, too.
Team whose dream was crushed Friday: It was never reasonable to expect Florida State to upset North Carolina in the ACC quarterfinals. Still, such an upset was necessary for the Seminoles to have a chance at the NCAA tournament, meaning the 82-70 loss will keep FSU out of college basketball's premier event for the 10th consecutive season. But hey, there's always football, right. (Oh, wait ...)
Performance I hope you witnessed Friday: A day after going scoreless against Villanova, Georgetown center Roy Hibbert had the best game of his senior season. He sank 12-of-17 shots and finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Hoyas to a 72-55 blowout of West Virginia in the Big East semifinals. Even more impressive was how Hibbert grabbed more offensive rebounds (10) than WVU's entire roster (seven) while ensuring something other than a controversial call (or no-call) would dictate the ending of this contest, unlike last time.
Performance I hope you missed Friday: Dominic James had one of those wild shooting nights that has kept him out of the NBA to date. The junior guard made just 3-of-16 field goal attempts -- and missed all four 3-point attempts -- in Marquette's 68-61 loss to Pittsburgh in the Big East semifinals. The Golden Eagles are now 1-3 this season when James launches at least 16 shots.
Three random notes
1. A string of four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances officially came to an end for Nevada late Friday. The Wolf Pack lost to New Mexico State in the WAC semifinals by an 83-75 margin. NMSU will now meet Boise State in the WAC title game, and with a home-court advantage to boot.
2. Speaking of home-court advantages, Memphis will have one in Saturday morning's C-USA title game. The Tigers will play Tulsa at FedExForum, and given how Memphis has already hammered Tulsa by 15 points twice this season, there's no reason to think this contest will be close -- particularly when you consider Memphis has never lost a home game to a C-USA opponent since the other premier members (Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette) left for the Big East.
3. American beat Colgate 52-46 in the Patriot League title game to secure the school's first trip to the NCAA tournament. Afterward, coach Jeff Jones couldn't help but to cry a little, tears of joy and all that. "(The fans have) waited so long and endured a lot of disappointments," he said. "So it's great to know that they can watch on Sunday and feel a special sense of pride that for the first time AU is going to be included."
What's great on tap for Saturday: North Carolina will play Virginia Tech in one ACC semifinal while Clemson meets Duke in the other. ... Texas will play Oklahoma in one Big 12 semifinal while Texas A&M meets Kansas in the other. ... Wisconsin will play Michigan State in one Big Ten semifinal while Minnesota meets Illinois in the other. ... Georgetown and Pittsburgh will play for the Big East title. ... UCLA and Stanford will play for the Pac-10 title. ... Temple and Saint Joseph's will play for the A-10 title.
Final thought: The best part of the SEC tournament was not the storm coverage.
